Definition
Herodotus (490/480 – 425 BCE) was called by the Roman writer and orator Cicero, “the Father of History” for his work The Histories, and has been known by that title since. Herodotus traveled widely in Egypt, Africa and Asia Minor and, more importantly, wrote down his experiences and observations, providing later generations with first-hand (though, in the opinion of his contemporaries, and later writers, not always reliable) reports on important historical events (such as the Battles of Marathon and Peluseum) every day life in Greece, in Egypt, in Asia Minor and on the seven wonders of the ancient world. He also called into question the historical truth of the works of Homer asking the cogent question of why the Greeks would wage so lengthy and costly a campaign as the Trojan War on behalf of one woman.
Though born at Halicarnassus (on the south-west coast of Asia Minor) Herodotus knew Athens and her history well and wrote at length on the city and its past. It is perhaps his standing in Athens as a metic (someone born outside of Athens and, so, forever denied full rights of citizenship) which lead many Athenian writers to denigrate his Histories as fabrications since Athenians traditionally mistrusted non-Athenian accounts of their own history and especially that of the Battle of Marathon. Herodotus eventually came to live in the Greek colony of Thuria, Italy, where he edited and revised his Histories and died in 425 BCE.
Though born at Halicarnassus (on the south-west coast of Asia Minor) Herodotus knew Athens and her history well and wrote at length on the city and its past. It is perhaps his standing in Athens as a metic (someone born outside of Athens and, so, forever denied full rights of citizenship) which lead many Athenian writers to denigrate his Histories as fabrications since Athenians traditionally mistrusted non-Athenian accounts of their own history and especially that of the Battle of Marathon. Herodotus eventually came to live in the Greek colony of Thuria, Italy, where he edited and revised his Histories and died in 425 BCE.
Articles
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Herodotus (484-425 BCE) the Greek historian who wrote extensively on the Persian Empire, here describes Persian customs as they would have been practiced around the year 430...
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II:85. Their fashions of mourning and of burial are these: Whenever any household has lost a man who is of any regard amongst them, the whole number of women of that house forthwith plaster...
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II:66. Of the animals that live with men there are great numbers, and would be many more but for the accidents which befall the cats. For when the females have produced young they are no longer...
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II:38. The males of the ox kind they consider to belong to Epaphos, and on account of him they test them in the following manner: If the priest sees one single black hair upon...
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II:35. The Egyptians in agreement with their climate, which is unlike any other, and with the river, which shows a nature different from all other rivers, established for themselves manners...
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Illustrations
Herodotus Books
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Penguin Classics (04 September 1972)Price: $10.88 -
Penguin Classics (29 April 2003)Price: $7.70 -
Penguin Classics (25 June 2002)Price: $10.88 -
Free Press (10 September 1998)Price: $17.13 -
W. W. Norton & Company (17 March 2007)Price: $19.77
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